I love to play and experiment with products. Sometimes it goes terribly wrong and sometimes I am super surprised at the results. Once a month I share one particular product that I’ve played with and at least 10 ideas for putting it to use. I don’t share the disasters of course. Of what I do share some of the ideas are more inviting than others. See which ideas you like! (Keep reading for the quick photo version.)
While you can do all the enamel style dots your heart desires, why not try other shapes? Go ahead and mix and match colors while you are drawing. And don’t forget you can draw fun things too. I once drew a fork and knife as embellishments to a scrapbook layout.
If you just draw a rectangle around an items like a photo or embellishment cluster, then you have a frame. Or doodle it up for fun borders.
Two important things to note here. First did you know you can draw with Nuvo drops on a non-stick craft mat (or sheet of plastic packaging, or a glass mat) and then pop the pieces off the mat for a stand-alone embellishment. Second some of the drops dry clear or translucent. You can put these to use for a stained glass look or for mimicking actual glass.
Have you ever thought about writing with your drops? You can do titles, greetings or word embellishments. You can just free draw or you can use this tip: Cover a printed sheet of words with clear plastic. Then trace the words onto the plastic. Let dry 24-48 hours (more is better). And then you can add these words to your projects. You could also write with a pencil or stamp in a light colored ink directly on your project and then trace over with an opaque style drops (most of them ARE opaque. Jewel drops are an exception, as well as clear colors. Glitter drops have a clear base with colored glitter so you may be able to see through parts of the image is you use the glitter drops.)
Likewise you can create your own puffy alphas in the same way. I prefer tracing for this so that my letters are consistently shaped and sized.
You can make your own flair-badge type embellishments. Punch out an image from some patterned paper and top with Morning Dew (clear!) Crystal drops for an epoxy-like finish.
If you do the same thing with very small punches then you get a “fancy” style enamel dot look. Just be sure to put temporary adhesive down on a craft mat. Stick your punches to the adhesive and THEN cover with your drops. This will prevent your pieces from sliding around and requiring you to touch them. That just ruins the drop’s finish.
A further idea here is to replicate acrylic pieces. You need to punch or die cut three layers of cardstock. Glue the layers together and then top with your clear drops. The added thickness of the multiple layers makes it look more like acrylic.
Go ahead and use your drops through various stencils. You can mix and match colors of drops, use a mask under the stencil to keep an open portion and even combine multiple ideas for added interest. Just don’t forget to wash your stencil immediately. If the Nuvo drops have a chance to dry and your stencils it will “clog” them up and ruin your stencil.
Have you ever done a heat-embossing and ink resist technique? This is the same thing, only easier. Just draw/stencil/write an image onto your project. Let dry overnight and then apply water-based inks the next day. Be sure to buff your Nuvo shapes with a tissue just a bit to remove any excess ink. Then you are left with pretty, colorful designs.
I know this is titled 10 ways, but here is a bonus 11th way. Just smear your products onto projects. This is much more mixed media vibe, but it can be oh so pretty. Here I’ve got a beach scene using opaque drops, glitter drops, and there at the bottom, stone drops. The stone drops have a sandy texture and when inked with brown will hold the color a little and actually look like sand.
Remember how I talked about disasters in the beginning? This is one of them
. I know I said I don’t share disasters, but this is a cautionary tale when trying these techniques. Let them dry ALL THE WAY before you mess with them. Otherwise they can stick to each other becoming inseparable blobs or they can stick to other things like the table and then pull themselves apart.
So other than that one precaution, go play with Nuvo drops! Were any of these a favorite? Do you have interesting ways you’ve used these drops? Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
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